For homeless families, hotel is a life in limbo

With shelters overflowing, they wait and hope for something more

WALTHAM - No one wakes as Nicole Sheck tugs open the door of Room 308 and slips into the too-bright hallway - not her boyfriend, nor her two older daughters sharing a bed, not even the baby, who sometimes stirs in the Pack N’ Play at this hour.

Sheck, 28, follows the floral red carpeting down the hall, past the rows of fake plants in the barren lobby and outside into the dark chill. A white taxi idles beneath a crescent moon. The driver knows her destination: “Joseph’s Two?’’ he asks as Sheck slides into the back seat.